Influence of blanching on quality and sensory parameters of dehydrated product of bhendi

Laboratory experiments were undertaken at the Department of Vegetable Crops, Horticultural College and Research Institute, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore in order to assess the quality and sensory parameters of dehydrated oriental vegetable “bhendi” var. Arka Anamika. The treatments were comprised of four different blanching treatments alone (T₁-Blanching for 1 min, T₂-Blanching for 3 min, T₃-Blanching for 5 min and T₄-Blanching for 17 min) and the remaining four treatments with the combinations of blanching with sulfuring (T₅-Blanching for 1 min+3 g/kg of product at 10 min, T₆-Blanching for 3 min+3 g/kg of product at 20 min, T₇-Blanching for 5 min+3 g/kg cf product at 30 min and T₈-Blanching for 7 min+3 g/kg of product at 40 min) and the last treatment was absolute control with blanching and sulfuring (T₉-Control). The results showed that the steam blanching for 3 min in conjunction with sulfuring further improved the reducing sugars of dehydrated bhendi fruits by 1% (9.0) in the system of dehydration. Similar trends were also observed for total sugars (15.6) as against control (15.9). Sensory scores like colour, texture, flavour and overall acceptability of the dehydrated produce of bhendi were significantly higher in the treatment blanching for 3 min in conjunction with sulfuring (colour (7.34), texture (7.00), flavour (6.0) and overall acceptability (7.45)] which were twice or thrice higher than control.